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Sunday, July 26, 2015

48 hours of eye candy... Las Pozas

Who wants to hang out with hippies, hairless dogs and check out really cool things in the middle of the rainforest? We do! We heard that only a short 4.5 6 hours away was a sight not to be missed. We were all amazed at the constant changing topography while we drove east for most of the day. We drove first through fields of cacti past endless ocotillo, up through pastures, over the top of a cloud forest and back down into a rainforest covered with a thick canopy. We had hardly noticed that the road trip was taking the better part of our day. We drove through countless "cute" (this term has become very loose since living in Mexico) towns each with their own church and plaza.

Roadside animals we passed along the way

I love that these small towns in the middle of nowhere would have festive banners over the main road.

What would possibly lure us 6 hours from home? Las Pozas was created by the British surrealist Edward James to be a Garden of Eden in the middle of nowhere... he nailed it. It is an array of surreal concrete sculpture, scattered through 80 acres of pristine rainforest. Part of the collection was the creation of pools that are fed by a large cascading waterfall. Swimmers are welcome to enjoy themselves in the pools and enjoy the endless beauty.

In addition to the pools there are at least a half dozen other creations spread throughout the rainforest. Much of Las Pozas looks like creations as if M.C. Escher and Gaudi had collaborated.

Comparable to the stunning 6 hour drive and magnificent Las Pozas were our creative accommodations we chose only 300 meters from the site. You didn't think we'd come all the way to the rainforest and stay in a Best Western! We chose to stay in another hippy dippy compound complete with tipis, cabanas and a "tree cabana".

One of the many tipis

We had rented what we thought was a tree house. Clearly things get lost in translation. The girls thought our Hobbit Hut (we all had to duck to get into the place) was cute. The place was cute until we woke up our first morning and noticed the arachnid monstrosity clinging to the inside wall. Yep, that's a tarantula. From then on, the Hobbit Hut was referred to as the Spider Shack or Shit Shack.

The rainforest brings with it many animals that fly and bite. You could just sit and watch the air move. One of the highlights were the fireflies, our girls went berzerk. Actually, our girls loved collecting all the bugs, frogs, crickets and catching butterflies.

Alice in Wonderland table made out of concrete.

Emma and her jumbo sized crickets,she had one on either end of a stick and started twirling them like a baton. Good thing our girls like bugs.

Don't look now Emma, you have a small tree frog on your nose.

Oh yeah, hippies and hairless dogs... Having gone to college in Eugene, Oregon, its not like I needed another picture of a hippy. Not to mention, their hairless dogs freak me out, so no pictures of them either!